Child Support’s Wacky Math

An indictment of Virginia’s child support parenting adjustment

reviewed by Roger F. Gay

Child Support’s Wacky Math is a book about the way that Virginia and other states modify child support
orders in consideration of visitation and shared parenting. It promises two
things; to prove that the formula is grossly in error, and to show how reality
gets lost and logic muddled in the overly political process that now dominates
the child support system. It delivers on both promises with room to spare.

The author is a divorced father of “four wonderful children” and
a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel. He is also a child of divorce. Robert W.
Ingalls wrote the book because he feels obligated to his children who he
admits are the joy of his life. He recognizes the pain that divorce causes
children and the pattern of interference that millions of fathers encounter
in their efforts to remain good parents.

In response, he applied career skills in math and logic to analyze
the parenting adjustment formula. He found influential recommendations from
the Virginia Bar Association to be logically and mathematically flawed and
shows that their errors were intentional. Their recommendations amount to
special interest politics rather than honest analysis.

Virginia, like most states, uses the “Income-Shares formula” for calculating child support amounts. The Income-Shares model
has an explicit goal of increasing child support orders to two and a half
times what they had been under established child support law. The name “Income-Shares”
suggests redistributing parental income rather than providing support for
children.

The idea of a shared parenting adjustment is to reduce the amount
that paying parents are ordered to pay in recognition of the time they spend
caring (and paying) for their children directly. The Income-Shares adjustment
begins with a calculation that increases a paying parent’s financial obligation
to the other parent.

To some, the calculation may seem strange and invalid from the
start. To others, the author points out, it can seem logical on the surface.
If two households are involved doesn’t that mean more expenses? But the underlying
logic of this particular formula, he explains, is to get the result that
the designer wants rather than an honest balancing of the books. It is illogical
to reason that a payer’s financial obligation to the other parent increases
in recognition of his own expenses. The result is inadequate adjustment to
child support orders. In most cases there is no reduction at all.

As obvious as the problem may seem to some, the
debate has raged
for more than a decade and this logical error and many like it are still
policy. In an effort to reach the broadest possible audience, two prehistoric
gentlemen are called upon early in the book to illustrate a basic point.
Caveman Vinney invented the wheel and manufactures them. His cousin Grog
sells them. Should Grog account honestly for his inventory or falsify his
numbers to create the business picture that he wants? Lying about the numbers
or applying flawed logic leads to problems. From there the book moves to
a steadily paced demonstration of the wackiness of the Virginia parenting
adjustment. If similar evidence was presented against Grog’s wheel business
it would undoubtedly be investigated by the Bedrock Securities and Exchange
Commission, leading to Grog’s indictment.

How should the child support problem be addressed? I place particular
importance on an overlying theme of this book. “Mathematics is about logic
and relationships,” he writes. “Just because you can ‘do the math’ does not
necessarily mean that the solution or formula or algorithm or whatever you
call it is correct, even if every time you work the numbers the value arrives
at the same answer. It has to have meaning.”

Virginia statues have previously been criticized
for leaving the term “child support” undefined; the ultimate absence of
meaning. Avoiding meaning; meaningful definition, meaningful logic, meaningful
data, was an essential part of the process of developing the Income-Shares
guideline. Yet, too often I have seen well-intentioned experts repeat the
process as though it will unlock a hidden secret and lead to improvement.
At the end of Child Support’s Wacky Math is a fitting quote from Albert Einstein. “No problem can be solved from the same
consciousness that created it.”
Good problem solving starts at the beginning and proceeds logically.

I suspect that Child Support’s Wacky Math is the kind of
book that many paying parents would like to write. An average father is no
stranger to bill-paying and might even show stereotypical irritation when
his dilapidated old wallet is beaten too hard. That irritation can only get
stronger when it threatens the precious time divorced parents share with
their children.

Putting together an integrated view of the child support issue
that includes basic wisdom, logic, mathematics, and politics is not an easy
task. Robert Ingalls was motivated to focus on one part of the child support
formula, the shared parenting adjustment, because of the enormous personal
importance of time with his children. That sentiment is echoed by millions
of parents across the country. Narrowing the focus to one piece of the problem
also allows a more complete presentation of the problems that the author
promised to expose. His criticism of Virginia’s wacky adjustment equation
is probably the most extensive in existence.

Given the absence of an independent judiciary (my own observation);
policy oversight must be provided by concerned and responsible citizens.
(An important activity in any case.) The book Robert Ingalls has written
certainly places him solidly in that group. Will it speak to the masses?
The answer may lie in the promotional quotes on the back cover. After reviewing
material that was used in the book, two members of the Virginia House of
Delegates promised support to “address the error” and “correct the situation.”
If Robert W. Ingalls’ analysis can induce corrective action, then this book
should be in the hands of every legislator, governor, review panel member,
judge, lawyer, reform advocate, and child support paying parent in the country.

1. Development of Guidelines for Child Support
Orders: Advisory Panel Recommendations and Final Report. Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Child Support Enforcement,
Robert Williams, 1987.